spend their whole lives looking for a definition of home that doesn’t come with
strings attached. I have spent my whole life learning that I must make myself,
take my belonging, it will not just be handed to you.” By the time she again asks
at the end, “where are you from originally”, you’ll be so drained and full of
questions that you won’t be able to form an answer.
‘Copper Bullet’, meanwhile’, is a bounding, grimey track that acts as a showcase
of Chaila’s rapping skills. The chorus shouts anthem-in-waiting – “Them man
there can’t best me, them man there can’t vex me” – while there are rhetorical
questions that will render you speechless: “What is Irish rap? It’s a sound that
you can’t predict”; “What’s female rap?” ‘Copper Bullet’ is a celebration of
confidence, a personal anthem of joy after a long period of self doubt and
stagnation. It’s a recommitment to myself and an outright rejection of anything
and anybody that would make a sub-genre out of me. This song came from long
conversations and reflections about what it means to be a ‘female rapper’. In
the end, I’m not a detour or an honorary member of a boys’ club; either I’m good
enough to be a part of this conversation or I’m not. I’m a woman, I rap. I wear
what I am proudly, and I represent it loudly.”
With these two tracks, Denise Chaila makes a case to be the most exciting new
artist in the country.
Adapted from ThePointOfEverything.com
Grime is a genre of
electronic music that emerged in
London in the early 2000s.The
style is typified by rapid,
syncopated breakbeats, generally
around 140 beats per minute, and
often features an aggressive or
jagged electronic sound.
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